The Student Room Group

Why are so many young people/students socialist or communist?

I'm not saying all young people (15-25) are, nor am I saying that all socialists are young.

However, I've noticed that a much larger proportion of teenagers/students describe themselves as communist or socialist than other age groups.

Does anyone know why this is?

To any socialists or communists,
Why did you choose your ideology? Do you expect it to change as you grow older?

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Reply 1
Academics love it because they think they should rule the world! ;-)

Its self perpetuating and no one wants to point out the obvious flaws in all of it. If you do then you will stand out, be labeled a......gulp......... dissident and banned from being an "intellect"

Plus its not nice to point out communism=millions of dead people.

Even a 10 year old could figure out its a bad idea.

Lets pretend we are 10 years old. Want to play a game?

Abraham "In this game you Tommy will be a solider"
Tommy "Cool"
Abraham "In this game you John will be a worker"
John "Cool"
Abraham "In this game Joe you will be a peasant"
Joe "Cool"
Tommy, John and Joe "So what are you going to do Abraham?"
Abraham "Well i am going to be the intellect telling you all what to do!"

Still want to play?
(edited 12 years ago)
Original post by lhp
I'm not saying all young people (15-25) are, nor am I saying that all socialists are young.

However, I've noticed that a much larger proportion of teenagers/students describe themselves as communist or socialist than other age groups.

Does anyone know why this is?

To any socialists or communists,
Why did you choose your ideology? Do you expect it to change as you grow older?


Because younger people tend to be have a more idealistic and naive view about the word unfortunately.
Because they lack maturity and intellect, and are woefully naive.

I'm eighteen and a dyed-in-the-wool Tory, and it seems that most people around my age are stereotypical "ANARCHY 4 DA UK" type rabble rousers, presumably because they've yet to actually grow up.
Reply 4
Because they don't earn any money. It's easy to be in support of wealth redistribution when you don't have any wealth.
Original post by Aspiringlawstudent
"ANARCHY 4 DA UK"


What has that got to do with socialism? Anarchism is extreme liberalism which is totally unrelated.

Original post by mrsabby
Plus its not nice to point out communism=millions of dead people.

Even a 10 year old could figure out its a bad idea.


No; corrupt and power hungry dictators cause millions of deaths. Still, it's not like anybody has died becuase of capitalism *cough*.
(edited 12 years ago)
young people are generally politically naive and idealistic; this makes them prone to adopting radical political ideas (both left and right) because they think these ideas can solve the worlds problems. Since young people tend to have a poor understanding of history or economics, they tend to follow their moral instincts in politics; to them, ideologies like socialism have a moral luminescence that other ideologies like conservatism or even liberalism lack, so they wander into these radical left ideologies without thinking things through.
Original post by Sammydemon
What has that got to do with socialism? Anarchism is extreme liberalism which is totally unrelated.



No; corrupt and power hungry dictators cause millions of deaths. Still, it's not like anybody has died becuase of capitalism *cough*.


Just an example of another ridiculously implausible political ideology :rolleyes:
Reply 8
CBA to argue.
Reply 9
All ists an isms are honey pots. You'll figure it out as you get older.
Reply 10
Original post by Sammydemon
What has that got to do with socialism? Anarchism is extreme liberalism which is totally unrelated.



No; corrupt and power hungry dictators cause millions of deaths. Still, it's not like anybody has died becuase of capitalism *cough*.


Semi-correct. Bankers do. They don't really care which ism it is but they do like Communism more because then they can control all income flows easier ;-)
Theres a number of reasons: younger people tend to be more idealistic and place moral imperatives rather than personal imperatives at the heart of their politics...

A simpler understanding of money etc.

Besides whats wrong with being left wing?
Young people aren't naive and idealistic really, or at least not to the point people seem to be suggesting (which is ****ing smug anyway really since they're all students). If you ask someone who is in university about their politics, they probably have a firmer grasp on them and the reasoning for them than your equivalent 40 year old with kids, regardless of what wing they are on or anything else. I think naivety is part of but it's also down to being more enthusiastic when you're younger. When you're young you discover things for the first time, you slowly discover more about capitalism, distribution of wealth, geopolitical repercussions of concentration of wealth etc. and you're more interested in changing things because you're young and have spring in your step and all that. Then you get older and you have to get jobs and step firmly in line to keep them, find ways of making ends meet and so on. Before long you're not looking at the rat race from an objective perspective any more, you're just trying to keep up with it. Then you've got a family to support and keeping up with the system, getting tax breaks, keeping money in the pocket and such is more important than trying to change the system to you.
When you get older, there's more chance someone has wronged you, then you have to admit people have free will, or take it like a bitch.
Reply 14
So many? Got any studies?
Reply 15
Isn't it hilarious my accurate description of communism gets 4 thumbs down
Reply 16
Original post by mrsabby
Isn't it hilarious my accurate description of communism gets 4 thumbs down


What makes you think academics love socialism? And this is not an accurate description at all.
Reply 17
I think it's from a lack of economic understanding. It sounds fair. They're also, as someone else pointed out, much more enthusiastic about things. If they've picked up on something that sounds exciting and new then they won't promptly research the case for the alternative but decide everyone who disagrees is a beneficiary of this psuedo-socialist-capitalism system we're running and thus wants to change it. If they knew how much liberty has to be sacrificed in socialism, how terrible it is as an economic model for distributing resources to where people actually want them, etc, they'd quickly reconsider.
Reply 18
Original post by kristol90
What makes you think academics love socialism? And this is not an accurate description at all.


You're mixing up your isms.
I'm not yet a student but I am very political and I find that younger people who are not able to be directly involved with politics tend to be able to watch from a different angle and can see how they would like it as they don't have to juggle adult life yet. I have also seen that younger people will either follow their parents or go against them eg. my mother and I are left wing and my friend and her mother are right wing.

Morals also play a huge role, with many different backgrounds and levels of wealth are all put into the same situation like University. People can see how (for want of a better word) unfair things are, as some people have to work their butts off to get where they want and others have the wealth and connections to get where they want with no struggle along the way.
Younger people have the energy to change things and are not caught up with trying to survive quite as much. From what I've seen, it seems that it is the left wing people that get out there and do something to be heard.

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